Guide for door-hangers.



'0. C. RIXSON.

GUIDE FOR DOOR HANGERS APPLICATION FILED m4. 2, m5.

Patented Apr. 17, 1917 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

OSCAR C. RIXSON, OF NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK.

GUIDE FOR DOOR-HANGERS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 17, 1917.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OSCAR C. RIxsoN, a citizen of the United States,residing at New Rochelle, in the county of Westchester and State of NewYork, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Guides forDoor-Hangers, of which the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription.

This invention relates to door hangers and more specifically to the formof hangers which are adapted for sliding doors used in' elevator shaftsand similar places, the general construction of which comprises a fixedtrack carried by the supportingstructure and a movable track carried bythe door which is adapted, through the instrumentality of anti-frictiondevices, to be supported by and slide upon the fixed track so that thedoor may be rapidly and noiselessly moved to open or closed position,with little expenditure of energy. Hangers of this general character arewell known and have been in common use, and it is the object of myinvention to improve the details of the construction to produce a hangerin which the tracks and anti-friction devices will. be at all timesmaintained clean and thoroughly lubricated, and in accordance with thisobject my invention contemplates providing a device such as a brush orpad,

which may be carried by the spacer for the anti-friction devices, whichbrush is preferably saturated with a lubricant and arranged in wipingcontact with one or both of the tracks and will, therefore, as it ismoved relatively thereto, prevent any dust or dirt from accumulating onthe tracks and at the same time thoroughly lubricate the moving parts.

Another object of the invention is to provide' a door han er in whichthe rattling or noise occurring y virtue of the movement of the track,spacer and anti-friction devices, is deadened so that the structurebecomes practically noiseless in its operation.

Another ob'ect of my invention is to provide a door anger in which allportions of the movable track rest directly on the anti-friction devicesin both extreme positions of the door, or ,in any intermediate positionthereof, whereby the tendency of the door to cantaliver, which isoccasioned by permitting a part of the movable track in t e extremepositions of the door to overlie or extend out a material distancebeyond the l t f the entiafricti'on devi es; is

eliminated. A further object of the invention is to prov. cle a simpleconstruction by which the tracks and anti-friction devices arepractically entirely housed and protected-"from thev dust and dirt whichmight otherwise settle upon these parts.

With these and other objects in view my invention consists of thecombinations and constructionsvhich will be hereinafter described indetzil and pointed out particularly in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 shows a complete door hangerembodying the features of my invention, parts of which are broken awayto more clearly show t e various details of the construction;

Fig. 2 is an inlarged view of a portion of Fig. 1, showin more clearlythe specific construction of t 1e combined spacer and re tainer and otheL features of the invention;

Fig. 3 is 2 transverse section of the hanger on the .ine 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a lo ngitudinal vertical section of a portion of tie hangertaken on the line ii- 1 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a transverse section similar to Fig. 3, showirg in detail theconstruction of the brush.

In the drav ings, I have illustrated my invention associated with asimple form of sliding door such as is commonly used in elevator shaftsand like places, consisting generally )f a panel 1, and a movable slidindoor 2 which is adapted by means of a oor hanger to be slid over thepanel 1, the door being shown in its fully closed position in Fig. 1.Disposed'at a suitable distance above the door and panel is a back plate3 carrying at its upper end an offset portion whlch 1s grooved or bentto form a fixed track 4 upon which the anti-friction devices are adaptedto roll. The back plate 3 is secured to bhe wall of the elevator shaft,or other supp rtin' structure 5 by means of the screws or boas 6, and ifnecessary, a spacer plate s1 ich as is shown at 7 may be used in orderto provide the proper clearance for the dc or. The fixed track 4 extendsthe entire width of the panel and door, or in other words, is twice thewidth of the door, the purpose of which will be hereinafter referred to.

Arranged above the'fixed' track in a position to be supported thereon bysuitable anti-"friction devices such as balls" 8, is a movable track 9.In the preferredembodiment of my invention, this track forms an offsetintegral part of a downwardly extending plate 10 which has attached toits lower outer ends hanger straps 12. Hanger bolts 13 pass throughsuitable apertures in offset seats formed on these straps 12, and arerigidly secured to the same by nuts 14. The lower ends of the bolts 13,as is the usual construction, are threaded into a plate 15 secured tothe top of the sliding door.

As will be clear from Fig. 3, these parts just described are so arrangedthat the weight of the door is suspended directly over the mediallongitudinal lines of the fixed and movable tracks so that the latterwill have no tendency to jump or otherwise leave the roller-bearing, ifcarelessly operated.

The balls 8 are maintained in proper relation to each other by acombined ball retainer and spacer comprising two separate plates 16 and17, having flanged outer edges which give the necessary rigidity to thesame. Openings are formed in each of the plates at suitably spaceddistances,. as for example, about three inches apart, in which openingsthe balls 8 are adapted to be positioned, and in order to retain thelatter in place inde endently of the tracks with which they are esignedto contact, end plates 16 and 17 areadjacent the openings provided withsockets formed by flanges or lips 18 and 19 respectively, which, withthe openings for the balls, are provided by suitably cutting andstamping the plates. The 1i s on the plate 16 are curved upwardly, Whl ethe lips 19 on the plate 17 are curved downwardly, and the surfaces ofthe same which contact with the balls 8 are of a similar curvature sothat while embracing the balls and holding them from displacement, theynevertheless permit the same to roll freely.

In assembling the retainer, obviously the balls are first laid in thesockets of one of the plates and the other plate is placed over theballs and the two plates are then secured together. Interposed betweeneach pair of balls, or if desired, only at suitable intervals along thecombined ball retainer and spacer, is a brush 20 which, in oneembodiment of the invention, consists preferably of a felt pad which isforced into a suitable opening cut in the plates 16 and 17, the endwalls of the opening having bent up flanges 21 and 21, which engage withthe ends of the pad. As shown In Fig. 5, the pad is of a suitable sizeto be in wiping contact with both tracks while the flanges 21 and 21increase the rigidity of the pad so as to give it the necessarystifiness. As stated, the pad is preferably of felt, or some otherabsorbent material, and in installing the hanger, may be moistened witha suitable lubricant. When, therefore, the door is moved to its open orclosed position, the relative movement between the combined spacer andretainer and each of these tracks will cause the pad to move over thelatter and thoroughly clean and lubricate them.

Another advantage of the pads is that they serve as sound-deadeningmeans preventing the rattling of the spacer or any vibratory action ofthe tracks which would tend to make the hanger noisy in its operation.

The combined retainer and spacer is shown of a length which is halfagain the width of the door; or in other words, the Width of the door,the length over which the anti-friction devices are extended, and thelength of the fixed track, are in substantially the ratio of 2, 3 and 4.This insures that in each position of the door the entire weight of thesame is equally distributed over a plurality of anti-friction devices orballs, for as is shown in Fig. 1, in its fully closed position, theballs and their retainer and spacer extend to the extreme righthand endof the fixed track. If now, the door were to be moved to its openposition, since the balls are in rolling contact with both tracks, theywill only move at half the speed of the movable track, and thereforewhen the door reaches its fully open position the movable track willagain be supported throughout its entire length upon the anti-frictiondevices. This construction is important for the fact that anycantalivering of the door is prevented, which makes it possible toutilize a single row of balls interposed between the two tracks andwithout any tendency of the movable track to tilt or leave the fixedtrack when in either of the extreme positions of the door.

While in each position of the door a part of the combined ball retainerand spacer extends beyond the movable track yet this ortion is, as isthe remainin portion of the xed track, protected from t e accumulationof any dirt and dust thrown from above by a curved hood 22 integral witha plate 23 interposed between the back plate 3 and the spacer plate 7,and as will be clear from Figs. 3 and 5, the outer end of the fixedtrack 4 is in close proximity to the lower end of the curved hood 22,the longitudinal space or slot between the two only being suflicient topermit the movable plate 10 to readily slide therein. This construction,therefore, forms practically a closed housing which will prevent to amaterial extent any dirt or dust from entering and settling upon thesurfaces of the track or on the balls and brushes which extend beyondthe end of the movable track.

Claims. v

1. In a door hanger, a fixed track, a movable track carrying the door,anti-friction devices interposed between and in rolling a contact withsaid tracks, a spacer for said anti-friction devices movable therewith,and

lubricating pads carried by said spacer contactlng wlth said tracks, forcleaning and lubricating them and the anti-friction'devicesupon-movement of said movable track. 2, In a door hanger, a fixed track,a movable track connected to the door, a hood extending over said fixedtrack the entire length thereof, anti-friction devices interposedbetween said tracks, a spacer and re tainer for distributing saidanti-friction devices over a length of said fixed track greater than thelength of the movable track, lubricating pads carried by said spacercontactin with both tracks, said hood and fixed trac having their freelongitudinal ed es adjacent to each other but spaced su cient to providea longitudinally disposed narrow opening in which theconnection. fromthe movable track to the door may slide, whereby said hood and fixedtrack form a substantially closed housing for said anti-friction devicesand the surfaces of the tracks with which they contact.

3. In a door hanger, a fixed track, a movable track carrying the door,balls interposed between said tracks, a spacer for said balls comprisinga relatively long narrow plate having spaced openings therein in whichsaid balls rest, ears surrounding said openings embracing said balls andretaining them in position, said plate having other openings thereinintermediate said first named openings, and brushes of absorbentmaterial secured in said last openings, said brushes being of a size tocontact with both of said tracks.

4. In adoor hang er, a fixed track, a movable track connected tothe-door, a hood extending over said fixed track the entire lengththereof, 'anta-friction devices inter posed between said tracks, aspacer and retainer for distributing said anti-friction devices over alength 0 E said fixed track reater than the length of the movable tracsaid hood and fixed trac; having their free longitudinal edges adj icentto each other but spaced sufiicient to provide a longitudinally disposednarrow op min in which the con nection from the movab e track to thedoor may slide, whereby aid hood and fixed track form a substantiallyclosed housing fori aid antrfriction devices and the surfaces'of thetracks with which they contact, and means carried by said spacer forcleaning and'lubrlcating sald tracks.

5. In a door hang er, a fixed track, a mov a able track carrying thedoor, anti-friction devices interposed between and in rolling contactwith said tracks, a spacer for said 0091a: 01 this patent may beobtained for five cents each, by addressing thi "Commiuioner of Patents,

' Washington, D. 0.

